257
greater than average interocular distance. Developed in
the early 1850s by Achille Quinet, the fi rst double-lensed
model to become widely available was patented in 1856
by John Benjamin Dancer. The Manchester instrument
maker had experienced diffi culties taking two separate
pictures, and decided to construct a camera “in form
somewhat like” the Brewster stereoscope. Dancer’s
advocacy of strict interocular distance went against
the grain in the early 1850s; he later recalled that his
camera was at fi rst “much ridiculed by those who were
supposed to be authorities on the subject.” Yet they came
into common use.
The simplest version of the binocular camera has two
lenses with focal lengths of 10.8-14 cm mounted in a
front panel; a central partition divides the rear box. With
this design the lenses had to be uncapped one after the
other. Various modifi cations provided portability, afford-
ability, or rapidity—advantages that compensated for
the fact that the side-by-side pictures, once printed, had
to be transposed before being mounted to a cardboard
support. For example, in some models, the partition was
hinged at the top and spring loaded so it could be pushed
out of the way to accommodate the lens panel, which
folded inside the camera for protection of the lenses
in carrying. Dancer reintroduced Noël Marie Paymal
Lerebours’s idea of placing wheel diaphragms in front of
lenses with different apertures (12-4 mm). With lenses of
11.4 cm focal length, these provided effective apertures
of f/9 to f/28. A fl at strip of brass attached to the center
of the lens panel served as a shutter; it could be pivoted
to cover or uncover both lenses simultaneously.
Stereo cameras incorporated improvements that
proved important to other branches of photographic
practice. Since the image size is small, stereo cameras
had short focal lengths and short exposure times—the
fi rst so-called instantaneous photographs (1/5 second ex-
posure) were produced by George Washington Wilson in
1857 with a binocular camera. Stereo cameras were also
adapted to produce the other leading commercial pho-
tographic format, the carte-de-visite. André- Adolphe-
Eugène Disdéri designed a 4-lensed camera with a
sliding plateholder in 1864, which effi ciently produced
eight poses exposures on a single plate. Cameras with
even more lenses followed.
The introduction of dry plate photography in 1871
prompted manufacturers to design a wide variety of
compete stereoscopic outfi ts, with lids forming trays
where camera could be placed when in operation. A
single-lens stereoscopic outfi t, including darkslides and
the grooved board, could be fi tted into a wooden box
about 33 × 18 × 15 cm. For binocular cameras, Dancer
introduced an attached plate box with a rack-and-pin-
ion system that allowed the photographer to expose a
sequence of plates in full daylight.
The late 1850s and early 1860s represent the height
of stereo camera production, with the most models
were available for a range of prices. Amateurs (such
as Viscountess Clementina Elphinstone Hawarden),
professionals (such as Francis Frith, William England,
Adolphe Braun, and Timothy O’Sullivan), and publish-
ers (such as the London Stereoscopic Company and T. &
E. Anthony) took up stereophotography for experimental
or commerical purposes, and camera design generally
adopted innovations introduced to ordinary cameras, as
in George Hare’s bellows design of 1882, for example.
Later in the century, the portable hand camera eclipsed
the stereo camera, which would reappear in different
guises in the twentieth century.
Britt Salvesen
See Also: Stereoscopy; Optics: Principles; Camera
Design: 1 (1830–1840); Camera Design: 2 (1850);
Camera Design: 3 (1860–1870); and Instantaneous
Photography.Further Reading
Ayer, Michael, The Illustrated History of the Camera, from 1839
to the Present, Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975.
Channing, Norman, and Mike Dunn, British Camera Makers:
An A–Z Guide to Companies and Products, Surrey: Parkland
Designs, 1995.
Clark, Latimer, “On an Apparatus for Taking Stereoscopic Pic-
tures with a Single Camera,” Journal of the Photographic
Society 1/5 (21 May 1853): 57–60.
Coe, Brian, Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures,
Gothenburg/New York: AB Nordbok/Crown Publishers,
1978.
Dancer, John Benjamin, “John Benjamin Dancer, F.R.A.S.,
1812–1887: an Autobiographical Sketch, with Some Letters,”
Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and
Philosophical Society 107 (1964–65), 115–42.
Dancer, John Benjamin, “On the Stereoscope,” The Popular Lec-
turer (Manchester), n.s. 1/5 (September 1856): 145–55.
Smith, R. C., Antique Cameras, London: David and Charles,
1975.
Symons, K. C. M., Stereoscopic Cameras, Surrey: The Stereo-
scopic Society, 1978.CAMERON, HENRY HERSCHEL HAY
(c. 1852–1911)
English photographer and studio owner
The youngest son of the great Julia Margaret Cameron,
it is perhaps not surprising that one of the best known
photographs by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron is a
portrait of his mother, taken c. 1870. Like his mother,
he also photographed Alfred Lord Tennyson (c. 1886)
and the artist George Frederick Watts (c. 1885).
Despite reportedly having very poor eyesight, he
established a well-deserved reputation as a fi ne photo-
grapher, combining commercial portraiture with active
membership of the Linked Ring. Indeed he was one of